At The End, We Return To The Beginning
by summersoul345
Summary: Updated! Chapter 4 is up! A Spinner and Paige fanfic taking place a few months after Death or Glory. What will happen when Spinner and Paige become friends again? Please read and review!
1. Chapter 1

Paige sat quietly on the couch with Marco, watching Project Runway. Ellie was out with Jesse yet again, and Griffin was out doing a music gig. She spent most of her time at work these days, being a fashion slave, but when she was off, she usually watched TV with Marco. It was not a very exciting life. And she hated to admit it, but she had basically no social life. She felt too weird hanging out with her friends who were still in high school, she had broken up with Alex, Ellie had Jesse, so she was never in, and Griffin actually had a life. Unlike her and Marco, who obviously didn't. It was nice to at least have Marco in the same boat as her. They had both had recent break-ups, so it worked well in that sense.

"I think I'm going to go to bed, Marco," Paige said suddenly.

"Paige! You can't, someone's about to be auf'd by Heidi. Besides, it's not even 11 o'clock yet," Marco responded.

"I'm probably going to have a long day at work tomorrow, Marco," she added. "You know how it is."

"Fine, but you better be in a great mood on Friday because I've decided to have a party," Marco added happily.

Paige groaned inwardly when she heard that. Marco was her only companion, and suddenly even he was getting a life? "Here? You're having a party here?" She asked, hoping the answer was no.

"Well, of course, silly. Spin just finished his chemo treatments and Jimmy wants to throw him a party. They don't have a good place for it, since they're all still living at home, so I offered," Marco replied. "And really, you can't be a bitch about this one, Paige. Spin has cancer, and this is to cheer him up."

"Don't just assume I'm gonna be a bitch about everything!" Paige snapped. "I know I've been grumpy lately, but so have you."

"You're right, and that's partially why I'm doing this. We need to snap out of our funk, Paige. It's time."

"I guess so. I can't really lounge around eating Doritos forever," Paige replied, getting happier by the minute.

"So you'll be at the party AND in a good mood?" Marco asked trying not to get his hopes up.

"Not only that, I'll also look fabulous!" Paige exclaimed, excited at the prospect of dressing up. "And I'll help you decorate."

"Look at us now, we actually have a life," Marco replied, smiling delightfully.

The next day, which was Thursday, Paige got home from work at around 8 o'clock. She had worked late that day so she could get off early the next day and help Marco and Ellie set up for Spinner's party. All the talk of Spinner and his cancer made Paige realize she hadn't seen Spin or even talked to him in forever, so after she arrived home, and read notes from all her roommates saying where they were (Marco and Ellie were shopping for the party and Griffin was working), she picked up her phone to call Spin.

She hesitated as soon as she scrolled though the names and landed on Spinner's. Would he even want to talk to her? When Jimmy had been over recently, he had mentioned Spinner's new girlfriend, some girl from Lakehurst. But she'd see him tomorrow at the party and she needed to make sure things wouldn't be weird before then.

After holding her finger over the send button and debating it in her head for a few minutes, Paige sighed and pushed the button before she could stop herself.

Spinner was just leaving The Dot after a long shift when his phone started to belt out his newest ring tone. It's probably Jane, he thought to himself, before reaching into his pocket to grab it. However, when the name Paige flashed across his screen, he was extremely surprised, but didn't hesitate to answer the call.

"Hello?" Spinner said after picking up the phone.

"Spin, hey. It's Paige," she replied in a shaky voice.

"Yeah, your name showed up on my screen," he replied simply.

"So, I know this is out of the blue, but I realized we haven't talked in a while. I just feel like I haven't been a good friend to you," Paige said, a sad tone to her voice. "You've been having chemo and going through this huge thing and we've barely talked."

"You shouldn't blame yourself for that Paige. We're at different points in our lives," Spinner responded. "Besides, you and me will always be friends, Paige."

"So your big party's tomorrow," Paige said, happy to move on to a more lighthearted subject.

"Yeah, it is. I'm pretty excited. You excited?" Spinner asked.

"Definitely. It'll be good to see everyone again. You, Jimmy, Ashley, whoever else. Jimmy did all the inviting, so I don't even know who's coming. We're just the hosts," Paige said, her voice brightening with every sentence she said.

"It's not gonna be too many people. Mainly our whole group. Jimmy's bringing this new girl, Trina. And my girlfriend Jane's coming, of course," Spin added, hoping to get that out before he just showed up with her tomorrow.

"Oh, Jimmy told us about your girlfriend last time he was over. She's from Lakehurst, right?" Paige asked nicely.

"Yeah, she just started going to Degrassi this year. She's a cool girl. Pretty much the complete opposite of you, though," Spinner added, a little edge of laughter in his voice.

"Well, I think you know not everyone can be like me, Spinner. I am one of a kind," Paige exclaimed as she dug through her closet, looking for the perfect outfit for the party.

"That you are, Paige," Spinner said.

Right after Spinner said this, Paige heard a commotion and walked down stairs at a brisk pace. Ellie and Marco had returned, laden with bags and bags of food and decorations for the party. "Well, this was a good talk, but I should be going," Paige said, upon seeing her roommates and their many purchases. "El and Marco just came home with enough food to feed an army and they look like they need some major help."

"Food for my fiesta, I assume?" Spin joked. "Well, I wouldn't want to keep you in that case."

"Bye Spin," Paige replied softly. "See you tomorrow!"

"Yeah, I will definitely see you tomorrow night at my rockin party," Spinner responded, before hanging up the phone and staring at it for a few seconds.

He trudged out to his car slowly and silently, until it suddenly dawned on him that he should call Jane.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Paige rushed home from work the next day as she had promised Marco and Ellie she would help set up for the party that night. She managed to run into the house at 6:30, throwing off her jacket and kicking off her shoes as she went.

"Paige! You're here. Thank God, we definitely need your help," Marco exclaimed, sounding excited but also stressed. He and Ellie were standing on chairs trying to tape up a banner and a bunch of other decorations.

"All right, so what do you need me to do?" Paige asked.

"There's a ton of food in the fridge that needs to be set up. People are going to start getting here around 7:30 or 8, I think," Ellie replied, much calmer that Marco.

"OK, I'm on it," Paige answered as she opened the fridge and began to pull out platters of food.

After about a half hour of getting the house prepared for the party, Paige went upstairs to pretty herself up for the evening of fun. She had picked out her favorite black top from her closet and paired them with a brand new pair of dark wash jeans. Then she retreated to the bathroom to curl her hair and "put her face on." When she bounded down the stairs a while later, she saw Ellie and Marco dressed and ready to go as well.

"It's 7:45," Marco called to Paige. "It's almost time. And, remember, this is all for Spin. Jimmy says we have to make sure Spin is having a great time."

"I don't know if I'm the one to make sure Spinner is having a great time," Paige interjected, giggling a bit.

"I second that," Ellie added in from the bathroom where she had gone to put the finishing touches on her look.

"Looks like a car's pulling up," Marco said from the window he was staring out of.

"Well then you might want to unplaster your face from the window," Ellie snarked simply.

"Hey-ho," Jimmy called out as he burst through the front door, a blonde girl with tiny braids helping to push him. "I'm here now, so we can get the party started."

"Hi, I'm Trina," the braided girl stated, sticking her hand out to shake Paige's followed by Marco's and Ellie's. "I know who all of you are, because Jimmy talks a lot about all three of you. I'm so excited to finally meet you."

"Well, it's great to meet you too," Paige exclaimed, smiling brightly at her. However, once Trina left to grab a drink, Paige leaned over and whispered to Jimmy, "Did Ash know that you were bringing Trina?"

"I don't even talk to Ashley anymore. You don't want to get me started on that topic," Jimmy responded, snarling slightly.

"Hey there," a voice called out and Paige whipped around to see Manny, Jay, Emma and Sean entering. "Good to see you all," Manny added. "It's been too long."

"I cannot believe Jay is here," Marco whispered in Paige's ear.

"Oh, you didn't know about him and Manny?" Paige asked. "I know nothing and even I knew that. Don't worry about it Hun, it's not like anyone's going to force you to talk to him."

"There's the man of the hour," Jimmy yelled exuberantly as Spinner entered, his hand entwined with Jane's as they walked in. It was the first time Paige had seen Jane, and getting a good look at her, Paige realized she did seem to be a good fit for Spinner. She had more of a dark edgy look to her and she reminded Paige of how Ellie and Ashley had looked back in the day. She seemed shy, too, a little weirded out by being the center of attention. A mob of people crowded around Spinner right away, so Paige retreated to the kitchen to grab a drink and wait until the scene cleared up to go talk to Spinner and meet Jane.

A little bit later, the party was in full swing, complete with some great music Griffin had lent them for the occasion. People were mingling, eating and seemed to be generally having a good time. Marco was sitting down on the couch talking to Jimmy and seemed to actually be relaxed for the first time that night. Paige surveyed the room and saw Jane standing alone in the corner while Spinner was walking around talking and hugging everyone.

After a moment's hesitation, Paige started to move across the room towards Jane. Upon reaching her, she extended her hand and said in the most polite voice she could muster up, "Hi, I'm Paige. You're Jane, right?"

"Yeah, I am. I'm sorry, but I don't know you. How did you know my name?" Jane asked tentatively.

"Oh, well I went to high school with Jimmy and Spinner and heard about you from them. I also live here with Marco and Ellie," Paige answered.

"Oh, OK. Maybe I have heard of you then? I'm not sure. But anyway, the party's nice. It was nice of you all to do this for Spinner," Jane replied.

"Well, we just wanted him to have a good time, you know? I'm sure you know better than I do, since Spin and I don't talk a lot lately, but he seemed to be down," Paige responded, not unkindly.

"I met him pretty much right when he found out about the cancer thing, so I don't really know what he was like beforehand anyway," Jane responded, seeming to ease up as the conversation went on.

"And I don't really know what he's like now," Paige murmured quietly.

"Paige!" a voice suddenly called out from across the room and Paige turned around to see Ashley, who had just arrived, waving wildly at her.

"Oh, well it was nice to meet you Jane, but it looks like I should be going," Paige told Jane.

"Yeah, nice to meet you too. It's so nice to finally meet all Spinner's old friends," Jane responded nicely.

Paige smiled at Jane before turning on her heel to run over to Ashley and give her a big hug. "Good to see you Paige," Ash responded exuberantly. "So where's the honoree of the party?"

"You know, I haven't even had the chance to talk to him yet, because he's definitely the center of attention tonight," Paige said, laughing a little. "Every time I see him, he's surrounded by someone. So, why the late arrival?"

"Had a little car trouble," Ash answered easily.

"Oh, Ash, you should've called! Someone would have picked you up," Paige replied.

"No worries. I kind of didn't want to be here the whole night anyway. Not with Jimmy bringing that girl," Ashley responded, a little more somber. "I know it was me that screwed things up, but it's hard to see that."

"I feel you," Paige answered, her eyes landing on Spinner as she said this.

"I saw that," Ash declared, giving Paige a look.

"Saw what, exactly?" Paige countered, though she knew the answer.

"You were staring at Spin when you said that. Please don't tell me you're thinking what I think you're thinking," Ashley said, sounding astonished.

"Well, I have no idea what you think I'm thinking," Paige countered.

"I think you are lusting after Spinner again," Ashley responded simply.

"Again? When have I ever lusted after Spinner?" Paige asked incredulously.

"Pretty much every year of your life. Hate to break it to you, but whenever you're single, you lust after Spinner," Ashley retorted, though not in a particularly mean voice.

"I don't know if I would call it lust, Hun. Every once in a while, my feelings come back. Kind of like how you got back together with Jimmy like 3 years later," Paige stated.

"Yeah, the first love syndrome," Ashley said agreeably, nodding her head. "The bane of my existence."

Paige nodded, a tired look in her eyes, and when she looked around again, she saw Spinner standing alone for the first time all night. "I think it's time for me to go say hi to him," Paige added and Ashley nodded along. So Paige left Ashley's side and moved across the room towards Spinner.

"Hey Spinner," Paige called out as she approached him.

"Paige! This party is amazing. Thanks times a million to you and Marco and Ellie. You're the best," Spinner said energetically, as he engulfed Paige in a hug.

Paige relaxed into Spinner's arms quite easily and simply said, "It's really not a big deal. We just wanted you to be happy and to have a good time. You deserve it." When they finally stepped away from each other, Paige looked into his eyes and it was almost as if she could see the old Spinner still inside him somewhere. The one who had been her boyfriend years ago. In that second she missed him with all her heart.

She quickly shook off the feeling and engaged in some small talk before saying, "I met Jane. She seems real nice, reminds me a lot of you."

"Yeah, Jane and I are kind of made from the same mold, so to speak," Spinner responded. "Different from all the girls I've dated before: you, Manny, and Darcy. Even though all three of you are pretty different from each other too."

"Have you finally learned that all cheerleaders aren't clones of each other?" Paige asked, feigning shock. "My, you have matured. I'm impressed."

Then, out of the blue, Spinner said, "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure thing," Paige answered nicely.

"So, obviously, I've kind of been going through a hard time lately. And it just reminded me of back in the day, when you were having a hard time, you know, with the Dean thing. And I just want to know: Do you ever feel like your old self again? After you go through something so life changing, you know? Will I ever be the old Spinner again?"

"That's a damn good question," Paige mused quietly. "I mean, my situation was very different from yours. But for me, I was never the same again. You knew me before I was raped and I was never the same girl afterwards. I don't think it was bad for me. If anything, it made me step back and take a closer look at my life and other people's lives. Eventually, I became closer to who I was before, but never totally the same."

"That's what I figured. But, you're happy now, right?" Spinner asked. "I mean, the overwhelming sadness about being this completely different, more jaded person. It goes away, right?"

"Oh yeah, that part goes away. I think you'll be happy again," Paige answered seriously before trying to make the conversation more cheerful. "You know what, Hun? This might be the most serious conversation we've ever had."

"That may be true Paige," Spinner uttered. "It was a good talk. We should be better friends. I miss talking to you."

"I miss talking to you, too," Paige replied. "We should try to get together some time soon. Deal?"

"That's definitely a deal," Spin answered, a smile beginning to form as he spoke.

Soon enough, the party was winding down and all the guests were on their way home. After everyone else had left, Ashley stayed behind to help Marco, Ellie, and Paige clean up and the four did a masterful job of tidying up the house. Ellie had invited Ash to sleep over and Paige was going to spend the night in Ellie's room with the two of them, so they could have a sleepover like they used to do back in high school.

After staying up and gossiping for a while, Ashley and Ellie fell right to sleep, but Paige had a harder time. Her mind kept wandering off to Spinner and how they had actually been able to relate to each other and then also to what Ashley had said about the first love syndrome. _Maybe we really could be good friends_, Paige thought to herself as she finally drifted off to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The next few days went by without incident for Paige. She still didn't have much of a social life but she was planning to hang out with a lot of her old friends who she had caught up with at the party. She took comfort in the fact that she would hopefully soon have a life.

On the Tuesday after the party, Jimmy and his new girlfriend Trina came over for dinner so Paige, Marco, and Ellie could get to know Trina and also spend some time with Jimmy.

Marco did most of the cooking, as Ellie hated to cook anything that wasn't Easy Mac and Paige was running late from work yet again. When Paige arrived home, the scene in the kitchen was quite hilarious.

Marco was wearing Paige's pink apron and running around like a madman and Jesse was trying to help by mixing ingredients but Marco was snipping at him that he was somehow mixing wrong. Griffin was trying to steal some cheesecake from the fridge and Marco was trying to push him out of the fridge while still correcting Jesse. The best part of the commotion was Ellie, who was standing back, surveying the scene, and cracking up.

As soon as Paige's eyes caught Ellie's she felt a smirk come over her face and tried to stifle her laughter, but soon she burst out laughing, as did Ellie.

"When are Jimmy and Trina supposed to get here?" Paige called out over all the madness.

"In about 20 minutes, so it would be helpful if Jesse would start mixing again!" Marco barked

"Wait I though I wasn't missing the right way," Jesse retorted as he strolled back over to the mixing bowl. "Make up your mind."

Paige sighed deeply then quickly walked over to Marco and stood in front of him with her hands on his shoulders. "Marco, you need to take some deep breaths and calm down. Now, what can I do to help?"

"Ooh, I know Paige! You can take over the mixing," Jesse answered excitedly.

"Yes, I think that would be an excellent idea," Marco added.

As Paige got to work on doing the mixing, Griffin finally popped his head out of the fridge where he had managed to scrounge up some week old leftovers and said, "Well, I'm out. Have a nice night. Also, I will love you all forever if you save me some of this delicious looking food."

"Nice seeing you, Grif," Paige called out jokingly as he headed out the door.

Forty minutes later, they were all seated at the table, enjoying the tasty food and gabbing to each other about all the current events in their lives. Soon, Ellie decided to recount the absolutely hilarious cooking story from earlier and everyone was laughing so hard they couldn't breathe except for Marco who hung his head sheepishly although Paige could see a smile playing across his lips.

Page had a little bit of torn feelings on the Trina and Jimmy situation and she knew Ellie did, too. On one hand, Paige had been friends with Jimmy since forever and it was good to see him so happy, the happiest she had seen him in a long time. On the other hand, she felt for Ashley who she knew had been having a rough time ever since their break-up and who probably still felt the old first-love syndrome.

The most interesting event of the evening for Paige happened a little later on. They had all been hanging out in the living room, watching a movie and having a good time when Paige had gotten up to grab a drink from the kitchen. As she went about her business, getting a glass and filling it up, Jimmy arrived in the kitchen as well.

"Oh, hey Jimmy. Do you want a drink or something?" she asked him nicely.

"Nah. I actually came in here to talk to you," Jimmy replied simply.

"Oh, really? What's up?" Paige asked, curious about what Jimmy had to say to her.

"It's about Spin. Ever since the party the other night, he's been talking about how the two of you are gonna be friends now. That's cool and all, but it's just that I have this feeling you and Spinner could never really be just good friends," Jimmy replied seriously.

"Why do you say that?" Paige asked, as she truly didn't know what Jimmy was getting at.

"I know you both probably have good intentions, but it's just that the two of you were together for so long. And you have the tendency to reconnect every once in a while in a more than friends type of way. Jane's good for Spin, Paige. I know you care about him and have his best interests at heart, and I think it would be best if you let him heal from this with Jane to help him before you two reconnect again," Jimmy said sullenly.

"I know Spin and I don't have a good track record of just being friends," Paige explained. "But I think if we could get past all the sexual tension type stuff, we could be good friends. It does seem like a bad idea and I understand where you're coming from. It's obvious that you care a lot about Spin. But so do I, and I really want to be a friend to him. I think he needs friends right now."

"That's all it's gonna be then, right? Just friends?" Jimmy asked, still seeming not entirely convinced.

"Jimmy, you know me. I would never do anything to intentionally hurt Spinner or his relationship with Jane. There are a lot of people I would purposely hurt, but Spinner's one of the few that I never would," Paige answered, a more serious tone to her voice.

"All right. Just wanted to make sure. You know, I gotta look out for my boy," Jimmy replied.

Paige nodded along and then the two of them headed back out into the living room together.

* * *

That same Tuesday night, on the other side of town, Spinner and Jane were out to dinner. The conversation had dulled to a silence when Jane suddenly blurted out, "Let's play Truth."

"Again?" Spinner asked.

"You got anything better to talk about?" Jane asked, leaning back in her chair to settle in for a good game of Truth. Truth was a pretty simple game similar to Truth or Dare, but only involving Truths where you ask the person personal questions. Jane had taught Spinner how to play it after they'd started dating and the awkward silences started to ensue. It was a game to fill the silence.

"Whose turn is it?" Spinner asked tiredly.

"Yours," Jane replied. "Ask away."

"Hmmm…" Spinner wondered aloud. "Ok, tell me about your ex-boyfriends." Spinner had wanted to ask her this for a while, but had been a little afraid to bring it up. It was actually pretty amazing they hadn't yet hit on this topic.

"Ok," Jane mumbled quietly, worried about how Spinner would take what she was about to say. "Well, I used to date Johnny DiMarco."

"You what?" Spinner asked, incredulous. "Seriously, Johnny DiMarco?"

"It was last year before any of this feuding happened and I just kinda had a bad boy stage," Jane replied quietly. "But I eventually broke it off once he started really getting involved in criminal stuff, stealing and all that."

"Wow," Spinner said. "I'm kind of shocked by that. But the past is the past. Anyone else?"

"Yeah, there was this one other guy a while ago," Jane answered. "But he moved away, doesn't live here anymore. Is it my turn yet?"

"Yeah, sure, go ahead," Spinner said, already subconsciously knowing what her question would be.

"All right, well fair is fair. Tell me about your ex-girlfriends," Jane said, a little scared that she wouldn't measure up to them.

"Well, I dated Manny. You know her, right? Only for a little while, though," Spinner said.

"Oh yeah, I know Manny. Nice girl, has a bad reputation though," Jane answered, a little surprised but not completely blown away.

"And then there was Darcy. I think you know her, too. She kind of got me back on the right track after all my problems with Jimmy and getting expelled," Spin replied easily.

"Yeah, I know her too," Jane responded. "You dated both the captain and co-captain of the spirit squad? Interesting choices."

"Well, yeah. I know those girls seem like clones of each other, but they're actually all quite different," Spinner said, not wanting to defend the girls but also not wanting to talk bad about them.

"I get that. I don't stereotype people, Spinner," Jane said. "So, is that it?"

"Nah, there was one more. Her name is Paige and she graduated last year. You may have met her at the party last week, actually. That was her place that we had the party at. Her's and Marco's and Ellie's," Spinner said, trying to be nonchalant about this.

Jane thought for a second and suddenly it clicked that a girl named Paige had introduced herself to Jane at the party and said she lived there. "Yeah, I did meet Paige," Jane exclaimed suddenly. "She seemed like a sweet girl."

"Well, she can be," Spin answered, smiling as he thought about it. "Paige has many different sides to her personality. She's sweet at heart, though. You know what's funny is she was captain of spirit squad when she went to Degrassi, too."

"So I'm kind of different from all the other girls you dated, huh?" Jane questioned.

"Yeah, you definitely are. You're a lot more like me than any of them ever were, actually," he answered, smiling sweetly at her. Spinner leaned across the table to give her a quick kiss, but when eh settled back in his seat, his mind returned to his coalition of cheerleading ex-girlfriends. There was Manny, the girl with the bad reputation who was really not as bad as they made her out to be. Then Darcy, the Christian good girl who had helped Spinner turn his life around,

At last, his thoughts settled on Paige, who he had been with through as many ups and downs as he could ever imagine. Paige, the girl with the witchy exterior who was as sweet as they come once you got beyond the front she puts up. The first girl he had ever loved. Some days, Spinner really wondered why his thoughts always settled back to Paige. But when he thought about how she had been through a lot and how he had too, it seemed to make sense that they would be bale to connect again. He mentioned how alike he and Jane were, but in very different ways, he and Paige were alike too. They both hid behind the fronts they put up. They both tried to be as strong as they could until they finally broke down. Like how Paige had been so strong after losing her rape case and then completely lost it, crashing his car. That memory had once made him cringe. Now, it put a smile on his face because it reminded him of all they had been through, both together and apart.

"Hello? Earth to Spinner!" Jane exclaimed, waving her hand in Spinner's face and interrupting his wandering thoughts. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah, sure babe. Let's get out of here," Spinner answered and he followed Jane out of the restaurant.


	4. Chapter 4

"Spin, trust me, it's not a good idea," Marco advised, as he, Spinner, and Jimmy sat at a table at The Dot.

"Now, Marco, I don't think a friendship is such an impossible thing to have," Spinner responded.

"Normally I'd side with Marco but I actually had a nice long talk with Paige about it and she seemed so rational," Jimmy added in.

"You do know I live with Paige and have conversations with her every day, right?" Marco replied simply. "And she's one of my best friends and I love her to pieces but she's kinda in a weird place right now."

"You guys have got this all wrong! You can never have too many friends," Spinner said, putting his arms around Jimmy and Marco. "And I'm completely with Jane, so that's all there is to it. End of story."

"Well, I'm sad," Jimmy responded, throwing his arms up. "You're a very convincing speaker."

"I don't know," Marco added in, looking thoughtful. "But I guess if you say so."

* * *

Paige was on her way home from work, driving her usual route down all the back roads as to avoid the traffic. It was the first genuinely warm spring day and she was enjoying the breeze flowing in through her open windows and sunroof when her phone suddenly started belting out "Love Song" by Sarah Bareilles, her newest ringtone. She checked to see who was calling and was intrigued when the name 'Spinner' came up.

"Hello?" Paige answered.

"Hey Paige," Spinner replied. "How's life?"

"Really busy," she said. "Work's been crazy lately. How about you?"

"I'm doing pretty good," he declared, "Chemo's over and I'm just trying to catch up on my schoolwork and all that. I'm definitely graduating this year. Can't let Jimmy down."

"That's great. It seems somehow fitting that you and Jimmy are gonna graduate together," Paige said sincerely.

"It does, doesn't it? Because if it weren't for me we both would have graduated with you guys last year," Spinner responded, a sudden bitter tinge to his voice.

"You still blaming yourself for that, Spin?" Paige asked sweetly. "You really shouldn't."

"Everyone says that, but I don't think I'll ever fully stop blaming myself. It's just one of those things," Spinner uttered quietly.

"I guess I can understand that," Paige said agreeably.

"So anyway, the reason I called is because at the party we talked about being better friends and I would really love that. So I was wondering if you wanted to hang out sometime," Spinner told her.

"Yeah, sure," Paige responded, not wanting to sound too eager. "When are you free?"

"I was thinking Tuesday night, maybe. What time do you usually get out of work?" Spinner asked.

"It depends, but I'm usually home by 6 or 7 at the latest," Paige answered nonchalantly.

"All right, so does 7 work for you then? Or do you want to do it later?" Spinner inquired.

"7 would work, I think. Where do you want to meet? You could come over to our place if you want," Paige suggested.

"Sure thing," Spinner replied. "So I'll see you then."

"Yeah, see you then," Paige echoed, and added," Bye Spin," before hanging up the phone.

* * *

"Hey Paige," Marco called out as Paige walked into the house and loudly shut the door behind her. "Be forewarned that Spinner may call you tonight."

"First of all, he already did," Paige replied. "Second, how did you know?"

"Well, I hung out with him and Jimmy today and he mentioned it," Marco answered simply.

"Interesting," Paige mused aloud.

"I think you need to start dating," Marco suddenly blurted out.

"Where did that come from?" Paige asked, taken aback, a bewildered look on her face.

"Just a thought. Actually, we all do. Me, you, and El. She's been down since the whole Jessie ordeal. We should all get back out there," Marco added, sighing loudly. "Ellie, do you know any good candidates for Paige to date?" he called into the living room.

Ellie appeared in the kitchen a few seconds later, then leaned over and whispered something in Marco's ear.

"You know, that's not bad," Marco exclaimed, sounding excited.

"No secrets," Paige mock-pouted, sticking out her lower lip.

"Ellie suggested a certain other roommate of ours," Marco answered, smiling coyly. "Name rhymes with piffin."

"No, no, no," Paige replied, vigorously shaking her head as she spoke. "That would be a terrible match."

"I beg to differ," Ellie countered. "Let's set them up, Marco."

"Excellent idea. Paige, what are you doing next week? You free Tuesday?" Marco asked eagerly.

"Actually, Spinner's coming over to hang out on Tuesday," Paige responded, a slight smile lighting up her face.

"Oh, no," Marco groaned.

"That's no good," Ellie replied, shaking her head simply as she spoke. "No hanging out with guys who have girlfriends. That is not how dating works."

"It is not dating!" Paige exclaimed. "I'm not in a good place to be dating guys right now."

"Oh," Marco said, suddenly looking like something had dawned on him. "You want to date girls instead?"

Paige dissolved into giggles and Ellie followed suit while Marco looked on, a puzzled expression on his face.

"No," Paige gasped through her laughter. "None of them. No boys, no girls, no Griffin. Deal?"

"Not a deal," Marco stated. "But I'll try my best."

"You know that's a lot coming from him," Ellie called out as she left the room. And Paige sighed and nodded, because she did know that. Marco had a constant need to meddle in her life, but it was what she loved about him. He obviously cared a lot about her and wanted her to be happy.


End file.
